Philoctetes
Philoctetes (Philoktetes) Author: Sophocles
First Performance: 409 BC, Athens
First English Translation: 1725
Genre: Greek drama in verse
Setting: Before a cave on the Island of Lemnos, during the Trojan War
Cast: 5m, chorus (m)
On the way to Troy, the heroic Greek archer Philoctetes is bitten in the foot by a snake. The festering wound stinks so strongly that the Greeks abandon him on the Isle of Lemnos and continue to the war without him. Having now received a prophecy that Troy will never be defeated without Philoctetes' bow and arrows, Odysseus and Neoptolemus, son of Achilles, return to the island, hoping to induce Philoctetes to come to Troy with them. Knowing that Philoctetes will refuse to lend support to those who so mercilessly abandoned him nine years previously, Odysseus resorts to cunning. He uses...
[The entire page is 417 words long]
Join eNotes
The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:
eNotes Pass
